Jockey Repp riding to the big time

Kate Repp rode show horses as a young girl of 16. Now 24, she has returned to Emerald Downs after riding as a "bug boy" at racetracks across the country.

But after today, she won't be a "bug boy" any longer. It is her final race as an apprentice.

An apprentice jockey is also known as a "bug boy" because the asterisk that follows their name in the program looks like a bug. As an apprentice rider, Repp is 11-10-5 (win, place, show) from 78 mounts, with a 14 percent win rate and 33 percent in the money. Her mounts have earned $126,026, and she is sixth-leading rider at the meet so far.

Emerald Downs is now home again for Repp, who was born in Seattle and raised in Auburn.

"I have a lot of support here," she said. "I won on some longshots right off the bat, and I showed I could get a lot of run out of lesser horses, and then you end up getting better horses as time goes on."

When Repp began on the racetrack, she groomed horses for trainer Mike Salter, then ponied racehorses and broke yearlings for Emerald Downs trainer Charlie Essex. Within a couple of years she learned to gallop and began riding his horses during morning workouts.

"I like the way she settles a horse early and gets them to finish well," Essex said.

At Emerald Downs, Repp rides alongside fellow female jockeys Sandy Gann, Jennifer Whitaker and Deborah Hoonan.

"I've been lucky to follow in the footsteps of some these good riders," Repp said. "Any woman that has got her foot in the door is worth admiring just because it's so tough."

Repp's first race as a "bug boy" was at the Fresno Fair, then Bay Meadows and Gold Gate Fields, along with riding on the East Coast at Delaware Park and Philadelphia Park, and most recently in Arizona. Repp's first win was at Bay Meadows, on a horse named "Lady Formal" for Dennis Ward.

"It was exciting, the race was 5 furlongs and my horse just shot out of there and I won by like 6 lengths," she said.

Just before she came to Emerald Downs, Repp was riding in Phoenix.

"That was kind of a tough, with a lot of cheap horses coming in sore from racetracks in Southern California," she says. "You learn to keep a hold of those."

And before that she was in the Bay Area at tracks near San Francisco.

"I got real lucky learning from a lot of good riders in Northern California when I started. That's the most valuable experience you can get when you're a bug is hanging out with a good jockey colony, especially those like Russell Baze at Golden Gate Fields. He was good to me, always encouraging, he's never real negative, but if you do something wrong, he's going to come back and let you know.

"Bobby Gonzalez was also a lot of help. He likes to help the bugs, as was the entire jockey colony in Northern California; they were real supportive."

Repp has a fairly basic daily routine at Emerald Downs. She's up early, around 5, has breakfast with vitamins, then is at the barns riding horses during morning workouts. She might go to the gym and run, then she's at the track by 1 p.m. for the afternoon of racing, first race at about 2.

Prior to each race, it's common for jockeys to look at the Racing Form to assess the other horses in a race. Repp says she doesn't do that much, since as a bug she doesn't necessarily have the best horse in the race.

"I don't want to be jaded by the horse's past performance," she said.

Her first stakes win at Emerald was the $40,000 Hastings Park Handicap, May 14, on the filly Kissntheboysgoodby, trained by Essex.

"She's probably the best filly I've ridden," said Repp. "She just lengthens her stride as she goes, getting longer and longer as the race progresses."

The horse's name was quite appropriate. As Repp crossed the wire, she was literally doing that — the boys were behind her. She'll probably be doing that a lot this season.

"She's a very good little rider," Emerald trainer Bill Tollett said. "I think she'll go on and do well, just fine, like Vicky Aragon Baze years ago. I don't think she'll lose much when she turns journeyman rider.

"One thing about her is that she tries every time and she doesn't get herself in trouble. That's usually the sign of a good rider."